Well i guess we're all aristocrats, aren't we?

"The group plans to return to Odom's house and keep an eye on the sky in the near future, hoping to see it again"

I just asked myself, what is a group of grown up men doing staring at the sky at night? I have only one explanation: Mushrooms.

turn the country into East Germany, a land where everyone is on alert lest they say the wrong thing and get turned in to the secret police.

You might want to rewrite this sentence in past tense, because last i checked (around 1989) there was no "East Germany" (German Democratic [sic] Republic) anymore.